


Handling Coworkers for Dummies

by DJClawson



Series: Theodore Nelson's Adventures in Sharing a Workspace [1]
Category: Daredevil (TV)
Genre: Bisexuality, Coming Out, Drugs, F/M, Foggy Nelson's Family - Freeform, Karen Page - Freeform, M/M, Minor Matt Murdock/Foggy Nelson, Minor Matt Murdock/Karen Page, Post-Season/Series 03, Sister Maggie - Freeform, Theo has a potty mouth, Theo is Foggy's brother BTW
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-28
Updated: 2018-11-28
Packaged: 2019-09-01 23:23:15
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,619
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16774996
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DJClawson/pseuds/DJClawson
Summary: Theo forgets that he's sharing his space with unreliable attorneys.





	Handling Coworkers for Dummies

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to Pogopop for a great beta job!

Theo liked having Foggy around more. He definitely did. He didn’t want to admit how much he’d missed his baby brother, but he also didn’t need to – he knew how much. His parents knew how much. Everyone seemed to know exactly how much they missed Foggy except for Foggy himself, as usual, too busy being too smart for his own good. Now he was back, at least temporarily, and things were good.

They were also ... complicated. Even with their parents gone, Theo felt a little crushed in his own space. The back room was for curing meats and storing cleaning supplies, not running a paper-filled office, and for 2018, lawyers seemed to need about an endless amount of papers. Theo’s place to chill out and maybe smoke a little weed right before he cleaned the floors with ammonia was inhabited by at least three people who had a surprising habit of squabbling with each other for people who _chose_ to work together. It seemed like at least once a day Foggy would storm out with his hands up, give his brother a look, then sigh and go back in. He never _complained_ , of course. He was too polite and diplomatic for that. Theo just didn’t remember Foggy ever being this exasperated. At least once a week Marci would show up when he was working late to drag him home, and she would also give Theo this _look_ that said, ‘Now you see what I’m dealing with.’

Theo was 110% sure the problem was Matt. Karen was nice. She was pleasant. She was self-effacing and she could drink Theo under the table, he quickly discovered, but the only time he ever heard her curse was at the scanner/copy machine. She was overly nice to Theo, and to his parents, and she looked happy to see everyone in the morning, even when she was quite obviously sick or hungover.

Matt, on the other hand ... Well, he was Matt. Theo had known him, ostensibly, for over a decade. Ten years of Nelson family Thanksgivings, and Christmases, and summer BBQs after Foggy walked in and announced that his college roommate was a warrior orphan child hero who was going to be coming home with him all the time now because he needed a good meal – and, it was only implied – a family to love him. And the Nelson family didn’t do anything by halves, so they did, and Matt was accepted at a speed which clearly surprised Matt. His shyness took years to wear down. He was a good guest – polite, smiling, putting up with crowded rooms of cousins bumping into him and forgetting to introduce themselves and slapping him on the back and even telling blind jokes and Matt never said a single word about it. At first he just looked more like he wanted to flee the attention, and Theo felt bad for him, even though he was specifically instructed not to feel bad for Matt, that was the last thing Matt wanted (thanks, Mom, he was an adult, too!). But even when Matt stopped looking like he wanted to sink into a hole in the ground, and he had spent hours at Theo’s side at the table or in front of the TV, they never really bonded. Theo thought he could read people pretty well, seeing customers all day and trying to guess what they wanted and memorize their orders and habits, but Matt was tricky. He laughed and smiled at the right times and he was good-natured but he was also very quiet. He was good at avoiding questions. And he got mad, _really_ mad, at something it was appropriate to get mad at – like something on the news, some injustice somewhere in the world – and would disappear for _hours_ from their uncle’s tiny house on Long Island. This was a guy who had a temper and knew he had a temper and didn’t want _other people_ to know he had a temper.

People like that could be dangerous. Matt was blind, but as Theo’s mom had reminded him a couple times over the years, it was rude to assume someone couldn’t do something because of a disability. Foggy acted like Matt could do anything in the world.

Theo didn’t have the greatest interactions with Matt. They weren’t bad either, he just didn’t gravitate towards him, and Matt didn’t follow people around, so it worked out. Matt was always with Foggy anyway. He rarely worked late like Foggy did – in fact, Theo was pretty sure he overheard Foggy complaining about Matt’s questionable hours. He came in, did some lawyering that was too boring for Theo to possibly want to listen in on or just involved a lot of reading, and left promptly, barely staying to eat whatever food their current clientele paid them with. Matt had a life outside of work – Theo once overheard Foggy bitching to Karen about Matt’s ‘night job.’

No wonder the guy could afford suits like that. He didn’t come from money but he had it; he dressed like he had it and carried himself like he was pulling in the kind of money Foggy was making at his last job, even though he definitely wasn’t doing it in daylight hours. Was that something he worried about? How he looked? He had to, to dress like that, but Theo was definitely out of bounds asking about it; he wouldn’t even ask Foggy about it without worrying about it sounding weird. The guy just had a system, right?

Theodore Nelson’s mind wasn’t on _Matt_ that night when he unlocked the side door hidden behind the dumpster. It had to be pushing one in the morning, well beyond when people stopped thinking about buying heavy meals and started worrying about last call. The store had been closed for hours; only the dimmers were on near the front window to remind customers that the place existed. It was a good time to sneak around, even if Theo didn’t usually sneak around at work, but he was desperate. It was an extraordinarily cold night and he was partially soaked from the rain he’d been unprepared for. The only thing warming him up was the presence wrapped around his body, seeking heat. Lenny, or Larry, or what was his name. It had been loud in the club and they were pretty drunk. The walk and the wind had sobered them up a little, enough for Theo to be able to get the keypad access code right the second time around while still furiously kissing Larry.

“Smells like ham in here,” Larry/Lenny managed to say between heavy breaths as they scrambled into the safety of the little hallway.

“You like it roasted or cured?” Not that he wanted to start going through cuts of meat right now. “Don’t answer that. Don’t make me think about work.”

“I won’t.”

Lenny/Larry reached for Theo’s belt buckle as Theo found the light switch, and then –

 _Oh shit_. Actually, he just said it, “Oh, shit.”

Because there was Matt Murdock, with his piles of unreadable braille printouts and his computer with the fancy keyboard and his headphones, still in a suit, but with the jacket draped over the chair. His glasses were even off.

“Um, sorry. I forget about the lights,” Matt said. He closed his laptop. “I’ll go.”

“You were sitting in the dark?” Lenny/Larry said. “What are you, bli – “

“Yes. Yes, he’s G-ddamn blind.” Theo didn’t know where that burst of anger had come from. He wasn’t mad at either of them. It wasn’t their fault. “Sorry, Matt – we’ll go.”

“I’m not going outside just because moleman – “

“He’s not a fucking moleman,” Theo said. And the moment was definitely gone, Larry losing all of his mystique in the light. “Uh, sorry – you gotta go.”

“Hey – “

“ _Now_.”

Matt had said something in the intermediary, probably to defuse the situation, but Theo didn’t hear it. Theo followed Larry out, apologized in a not very committed fashion, and locked the door behind a guy he had fortunately not exchanged numbers with. He leaned his head against the door. His hands were shaking.

Matt really was packing up. When Theo turned back, he saw the infamous glasses were back on. “Um,” Theo said, “you didn’t see anything tonight, okay?”

“Okay,” was Matt’s firm, lawyerly response.

“I mean it. I really fucking mean it, Matt – “

“Theo,” Matt said – calmly, firmly, glaring at him with two circles of red, like scary goggles that could peer into his soul. “It’s okay.” He offered his disarming smile that so many people found so charming. “I never see anything anyway.”

Theo sighed. He couldn’t let it sit. He felt like he couldn’t just walk out – he believed Matt, he really did, he knew he should, but he was scared, and Foggy knew Matt on some kind of telepathic level –

“I’m not going to tell,” Matt said. “It’s not my place. It’s not anyone’s place but yours.”

Matt was staring at him and Theo decided he was too fucking sober. Drinks at clubs were always so expensive and his last one was with red bull. “You want a beer?”

“Yeah, sure. I’ll have a beer.” Matt did not sound like he wanted a beer all that badly, but he wanted to do something, so he took what Theo had in the fridge.

“It’s a lager,” Theo said. He knew Matt couldn’t read labels. What he really wanted was some weed, but alcohol would have to do.

“ _Sláinte_ ,” Theo said as he clinked his bottle against Matt’s, even though he certainly didn’t feel like celebrating. He was still hyper from the red bull, a little buzzed from his last cocktail, and not over the shock of being outed in front of his brother’s creepy life partner.

“ _Sláinte_ ,” Matt replied, and they drank in silence for a minute, until Theo felt like he could sit down on the stool opposite Matt, taking in the too-quiet surroundings before he picked up someone’s voice droaning on.

“Sorry,” Matt said, and hit a button on his computer to stop the noise coming out of his headphones. “Depositions. If I had heard you come in, I would have given you your privacy.”

Theo took another long pull and his finger found a grove in the old wood of the table. “Did you know?”

“Yeah.”

“Since when?”

“Uh ... that year you brought your girlfriend home for Thanksgiving,” Matt said. “Your parents thought she was a nice girl, but there wasn’t any spark.”

“Did they say anything else?”

Matt shook his head.

“She was a nice girl. She did me a solid,” Theo said. “Her parents weren’t speaking to her after she came out, so she had nowhere to go anyway. Things are better now, I think.” To his credit, Matt didn’t respond. He had his listening face on. For a secretive guy, Matt’s face could be pretty readable. Theo asked, “Does Foggy know?”

“We’ve never discussed it,” Matt offered, “but I don’t think so. He would be okay with it, you know.”

Theo nodded. “It’s not that my parents are homophobes, they’re just – they’re old fashioned. They have a family business. They had two family businesses. Everything is family and kids and the next generation and church and – all of that shit. They expect me to ... I don’t know, be a certain person. You couldn’t understand, you don’t have – “ He stopped himself in time, but barely. “Fuck, I was about to say you don’t have parents. Like that makes it easier.”

Matt took a moment and said, “Actually, I found out my mom was alive three months ago.”

“What?”

“She left when I was a little kid,” he said, “to be a nun.”

“Damn.”

“And I knew her, too. She worked at the orphanage I ended up at when Dad died. But she didn’t tell me. I just overheard recently. My hearing’s really good.”

“That’s fucked up, man. That’s really fucked up.”

“Yeah, it’s pretty fucked up,” Matt replied, but he was actually almost laughing about it. “I – she feels really bad about it. I don’t know how to feel. But I already know she wants me to get a girlfriend. A specific girlfriend.”

“Karen?” As if it was a question.

“It’s more complicated than she can possibly imagine. Foggy hasn’t met her yet. I’m – not ready for that. There’s no logical reason. I’m just not ready. It wouldn’t be a bad thing, it would just be a whole ...”

“Thing?”

“Yeah.” Matt pointed at him knowingly. “Exactly.”

That was it. Theo needed something else. He got up and headed for the tin of the absolutely most disgustingly-named tea he could find. “While we’re sharing secrets – “

“It’s not a secret,” Matt said. “I have a very good sense of smell.”

“Fuck you,” Theo said, and got the tin down. There were still two rerolled blunts in a Ziploc. He kept the expensive vaporizer in his apartment. “You want?”

Matt up a hand up gently. “I’m an officer of the court. I can’t get a felony. Bar association really frowns on that. Otherwise, I might. So thanks for the offer.”

Theo took out a blunt but needed the torch they used for the grill to light it. “Foggy is so pissy about it. He said he hates the smell.”

“He does hate the smell. That’s why I gave it up in college.”

“You dealt with his snoring and you gave up weed? You deserve some kind of medal.”

“It wasn’t so bad,” Matt said with a smile that betrayed a blatant lie. “He stuck with me despite me being an unreliable asshole, in his words. As of yesterday.”

“Where do you go at night? Are you a hooker? Can I hire you?”

“The way you talk about loans, you can’t afford me,” Matt said. He’d finished the beer. “I beat people up. When I don’t have depositions to go over.”

“Like Daredevil? Or Luke Cage?”

“ _Exactly_ like Daredevil,” Matt said. “Definitely not like Luke Cage. I’ve been told he has style.”

The weed wasn’t even that good; it was more of the idea of it, and of the backroom being his escape room again, that made Theo happy. “I told Foggy to come help out in the store . When you were in rehab.”

“Is that what Foggy called it?” was all Matt said to that. “Did he say yes?”

“He’s got a life. A real life. He’s got a nice apartment that he shares with a woman who’s gonna eat him alive if he doesn’t marry her, he used to have a well-paying job, he’s all snazzy – did you know he cut his hair?”

Matt shook his head.

“He looks like the president of a Young Republicans club.”

“I’m sure it’s not that bad.”

“He wears suits with vests. With _vests_.”

“Vests can be very stylish.”

“Screw you!” Theo said through a laugh. “I think he would help, if I really asked him, but then that whole Fisk thing happened, and when he went to jail the pressure came off us about loans, and then he wanted to reopen his practice with you – he loves you, man. He fucking loves you.”

“I know.”

“What did you say to him? What did you _do_ to him?”

“At this point, I have no idea,” Matt said. It sounded sort of like the truth. “I’m just lucky to have him in my life.”

“True dat.”

“And I blew him once, so when I say he’ll be okay with it, he’ll _definitely_ be okay with it.”

Everything that could have gone in the wrong tube did, and Theo was hacking up half a lung while Matt laughed his head off.

The End


End file.
